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Nintendo recently announced that the US release date for Metroid: Zero Mission
will be February 9, 2004 and also unveiled the colorful, comic book-style
box art (right). We'll keep our ears open for word on international release dates.

N also leaked just a tiny amount of information on the game:

"Based loosely on the original NES maps, Metroid: Zero Mission includes all of the
weapons and environments that made the original a huge hit, and also provides a
totally new experience for the series' many fans by adding new enhancements and
delving deeper into aspects of the story that haven't been told."

We are still not told how MZM fits into the Metroid series story-wise, although
it would appear that the general speculation of it being an enhanced version of the
original Metroid is still the most likely scenario.

As pretty much everybody knows by now (no thanks to that lazy jerk over
at the MDb -- oh wait, that's me), Metroid Zero Mission is now slated to
be released in early 2004. In a September 24 teleconference, NOA Senior
VP of Marketing George Harrison stated that MZM, along with Mario Golf, would
hit shelves "shortly after the New Year." However, no actual hard street date has
been announced yet, so this is only kinda-sorta news, I'd say.

And for those of you who still haven't gotten around to picking up Prime,
your wait has paid off: Nintendo recently dropped the MSRP of the game to $29.99.
Of course, you totally missed out on almost a year's worth of playing
the game in order to save 20 bucks, ya cheap bastard.

Sources tell us that Zide-Perry Entertainment's option on the Metroid
motion picture rights has expired. This information was given to the MDb by a
screenwriter who placed a call to the Z-P office inquiring whether
or not they were still seeking a script, and was told that they no longer had the
option for the film. Of course, another production company could always pick up the
rights, but at this point, nobody has, so don't hold your breath for that Metroid movie
premiere to be happening anytime soon.

Check out what's new for us Metroid freaks! First, June 18 saw the release of
the Metroid Prime and Fusion Original Soundtracks 2CD set in Japan.
Don't hold your breath for a domestic release, but if you have a credit card and
want to order it from Japan, I can highly recommend
CDJapan for this
and all your other import CD, DVD and VHS needs.
Anyway, the album is great and the reversible packaging is very cool.
Look for more details and images on the MDb in the near future.

Secondly, Nintendo's Game Boy Player accessory hit stores in the US
today (June 24). As you probably know, the GBP is an attachment that connects
to the bottom of your Gamecube and allows you to play all Game Boy, Game Boy
Color, and Game Boy Advance games on your TV. Fusion looks spectacular,
crisp and colorful on the big screen, and the unit gives Metroid II its
GBC color palette of blue backgrounds and red/yellow sprites. Personally, I also
found that Fusion is more fun to play with the GC controller, but you can hook
up the GBA using the link cable if you prefer the feel of the portable.

(Random thought...if one were to attach both a GBP and one of those third-party
LCD screens to one's Gamecube, wouldn't that make it the world's clumsiest
GBA?)

The rumors were true: Metroid Zero Mission is an all-new 2D game for
the Game Boy Advance! Early screenshots revealed by Nintendo show
a very classic-style Metroid adventure, devoid of the twists found in Fusion
and looking more like Super. Also, both the screenshots and the first piece
of official Nintendo art for the game show Samus wearing her
original Power Suit -- not the version with the beefed-up Varia shoulders featured in
Metroid II and beyond -- which, along with the title of "Zero Mission" and the
very original-Metroid-looking blue and gold logo on the game's title screen, indicates
that this game may very well be a prequel to Metroid 1! Old-schoolers rejoice --
this one looks fun!!

Hopefully, more information on both Zero Mission and Metroid Prime 2
will be revealed as E3 2003 rolls on this week.

Further information from various sources sheds a little more light on the mysterious
Metroid Zero Mission and reveals that the game is, in all likelihood, not a prequel,
but rather a beefed-up remake of the original Metroid. It looks as though
we will be taken back to Zebes for Samus' first encounter with Mother Brain, but this time
our girl will have all the abilities and weapons she's gained in all her adventures since
then! Imagine exploring Metroid 1 with the ability to crouch, wall jump, speed boost and grab
ledges, and taking on the game's enemies with the help of Super Missiles and who
knows what other weapons! So far, it looks like while Samus herself looks much more
streamlined than the big-helmeted sprite did in 1986, her animation pays a sincere
homage to the original version, with Samus running notably fast and holding her
gun arm out constantly.

Of course, the question remains, why the name Zero Mission? "Zero" usually
denotes a prequel of some sort, so why not name the game "Metroid Advance" or
"Metroid 2003" or something? This remains a mystery, as do whatever twists and
additions Nintendo will throw at us (we already know there will be completely new
areas, enemies and bosses added to the game). NCL's website does mention that
MZM is a "tentative title," so it may change before the game's release (remember that
Fusion was at one point actually titled simply Metroid IV). With an almost
Hideo Kojima/Metal Gear Solid-esque level of ambiguity, Nintendo has teased us with
little other than screenshots, video, and a name. So, with no solid information available from
Nintendo, all we can do is make a few guesses and wait for some more answers.

(The last title on the bottom is MZM -- the video is almost the same as IGN's, but direct-feed. A
very intriguing point of interest: up until 5/15, NCL's video showed what was apparently
an earlier build, featuring simpler graphics and a cartoony Samus. Doomo arigatou
to MDb visitor n128 for originally providing this link!)

This week marks the opening of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in
Los Angeles. Reports say that Nintendo will be showing video footage of Metroid Prime 2.
But what is Metroid Zero Mission? The name has been floating around in recent weeks
and it is now confirmed that a game with that title will be shown by Nintendo at E3. But is
it a new 2D game, as some have rumored, or is it the actual title of Prime 2?
We'll find out this week!

There's a poll up at Nintendo.com's
Metroid Prime 2 page asking what we'd like to see in the upcoming sequel. There are four choices, and while one of
them is "A return to the side-scrolling format," the option of "Third-person 3D gameplay"
is not among them. In the words of Hurricane Helms, Wassupwitdat?!

Finally, Metroid Prime is available around the world as the game was released
in Australia on 3 April 2003. It would appear that the Australian release is the same
version as the European release, with the additional changes from the original US
version which began with the Japanese edition. At last, Samus' newest adventures
can be enjoyed all around this big Morph Ball we call Earth.

Metroid Prime finally debuted in Europe on March 21. It was a long wait
for our European friends, but actually bringing up the rear will be Australia, who still has
to wait just over a week for their chance to put on Samus' helmet on April 3.
With that, Prime will finally be worldwide. As you've probably heard, the European
edition has received certain changes much like the Japanese version, so completists
might want to ready their Freeloaders and check them all out to find their
favorite.

Nintendo of Europe
is currently running a Metroid Prime contest, where entrants must create a
Metroid Prime fansite. The grand prize is a 184-cm statue of Samus Aran!
See www.nintendo-europe.com
for details. (Sadly, I, being an American citizen, am not eligible. *sniff*)

Yes, I'm a week late in reporting news, but of course Metroid Prime was
released on February 28 in Japan, debuting at #6 of the top-selling game titles
for the week.

The MDb has acquired a copy of the Japanese
version and while the game itself is pretty much the same, lots of little details
have been tweaked and changed, such as the addition of an English-language
voiceover during the game's intro and a little computer voice that chimes in
during Logbook scans and hint system notes. The Japanese edition also
features the Famicom Disk System version of the original Metroid
(with Japanese text and the Zelda-style file saves rather than the password system)
as the unlockable, not the NES version. Of course, everyone is
now aware that changes were also made to the Japanese version of Fusion,
including additional endings and difficulty modes. The MDb will hopefully have
a rundown of all the changes made to both games in the future -- a first,
since the original Metroid experienced only a few changes in its conversion
for the US, and Metroid II and Super are 100% identical in
both versions.

Scans of the Japanese Prime packaging are now
available in the MDb's Prime area.
(I'm still waiting for my copy of the Japanese Fusion, incidentally.)

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA)
will be awarding Gunpei Yokoi, creator of the Nintendo Game & Watch and
Game Boy and producer of many of Nintendo's most classic games from
Donkey Kong to Metroid, their Lifetime Achievement Award
at the 3rd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The award will be presented
by Sonic Team's Yuji Naka, recipient of last year's award, and will be
accepted by the late Yokoi's family. Read more about it
here.
Thanks to everyone who passed this along.

Nintendo's new Game Boy Advance SP was released in Japan today
to brisk sales. The usual long queues of enthusiasts in front of Tokyo
game shops was the order of the day once again, as seen in the photo
of Yodobashi Camera Game*Music in the city's Shinjuku district to the right
(shamelessly swiped from Famitsu.com, gomen nasai!!). According to Famitsu,
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Metroid Fusion,
both also dropping today in Japan, were popular software titles purchased
along with the new hardware. The GBASP will be released in North America
on March 23.

For our friends in Europe who have to wait until late March for
Metroid Prime, the official European Prime site is now online at
http://194.192.82.242/metroid/flash/player.htm. The site
is completely different from the US or Japanese official sites, featuring
a neat Flash adventure game complete with visors, stuff to scan, and
items to collect. The site is viewable in a number of languages, too. Cool!
Thanks to MDb visitor Justus van Veghel for the heads-up!

Hey everybody, not to be mean, but I've gotten about a billion emails telling me,
"Metroid.jp has E-Manga" and "Metroid.jp has the Japanese commercials"
and "Metroid.jp has this and that." Trust me, we know what's going on at
metroid.jp.
It's awesome. We love it. We're all talking about it.
We're paying attention to it. We appreciate your enthusiasm,
but you don't need to tell us about it. We pretty much figured
that Metroid otaku would be checking out the official sites anyway
and that we don't need to report on it. But if you haven't, make sure you do!
In fact, even metroid.com
is finally being updated, so make sure you spend some time there too!

Yep, it's official, there's gonna be a sequel. No details are available, and
Metroid Prime 2 is only a tentative title. Nintendo's official
page for the game is at this link.
All we, the Metroid fans, ask is that they put at least as much thought
and effort into the sequel as they did into Prime, and don't just knock
it out overnight to make a quick buck.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
ran a story today by writer Scott Taves about the current trend of classic videogame
franchise revivals. Among those interviewed was, well, me. ^_^;
Read the article here! (Thanks to Mr. Taves for asking my opinions!)

Nintendo news site
Nintendojo
has a Metroid special feature on the site, part of which is an interview with
some schmoe that made some "Metroid Database" website. Have a look.
The feature itself is here.

According to this article on Planet Gamecube and long-running entertainment news report
Variety.com (subscription
necessary to view Variety article), Hollywood's
Zide/Perry Entertainment (producers of Final Destination, American Pie)
have acquired movie rights to Metroid. Few details are available and little to no
crew or cast appears to have been decided or announced.

Judging by Hollywood's track record of making terrible movies based on videogames,
many fans are already squirming in their seats. Others are skeptical that the project will
even see the light of day at all. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see on both
counts. Hey, ya never know.

I just have one more thing to say: if they do make it, I want a cameo appearance in it.
I'll be a scientist that gets killed by Ridley, or a Galactic Federation officer,
or Samus' friggin' mechanic that tunes up her ship -- anything. Hey Hollywood,
contact me!

As the Japanese releases of Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion draw
near (Fusion on 2/14 and Prime on 2/28), and further driving home
the point that Japan destroys us all in the arena of videogame
coolness, NCL has launched their new, official, and thoroughly badass
Metroid site at metroid.jp.

Page 144 of the latest issue of Nintendo Power features a challenge to players: they
want to see the top 5 highest percentages and fastest completion times for Metroid
Prime. The winners will be published in an upcoming issue. I want some MDb
visitors on that list! GO FOR IT!!

On January 7, Nintendo announced the upcoming Game Boy Advance SP,
a redesigned and front-lighted Game Boy Advance. With a compact
design reminiscent of the classic Game & Watch or even the
rare PC-Engine LT, this new edition of the GBA drops on
February 14 in Japan and March 23 in North America for US$99. It's generally assumed
that Nintendo might be planning to use the GBASP as competition for cellphones,
more of which have the ability to play games these days, but it's also logical
that Nintendo noticed the extreme popularity of the Afterburner, an aftermarket
light modification which many players have installed on their GBAs. Between
this and the upcoming Game Boy Player add-on for the Gamecube,
we Metroid fans are just looking forward to playing Fusion on our televisions.